Decolonization

The process of ending colonialism and the liberation of the colonized. Decolonization includes many different intersecting struggles including not only the return of colonized lands to indigenous inhabitants, but also the affirmation of indigenous ways of knowing and the reclamation of indigenous lifeways, languages, and other cultural forms which have been stamped out through the ongoing process of colonization. Decolonization fights back against imperialism, colonialism, and colonial mentalities that dominate our education, media, and governmental policies.

For people not indigenous to the land they exist on, decolonization begins by recognizing that they are settlers, living on and benefiting off of stolen land. This theft has been made possible through processes of colonization, genocide, and slavery of indigenous people. These oppressions are not merely unfortunate pieces of history that have no effect on contemporary reality, but continue to be wrought on indigenous communities world wide. Furthermore, decolonization requires solidarity with, and active support of on-the-ground resistance to corporate and national take-overs of land and land defense efforts which aim to protect the land and people from toxic industries and profit-driven decimation.

Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry. Edited by Steve Heinrichs, Herald Press, 2013.Conversations on Creation, Land Justice and Life Together - indigenous and non-indigenous writers share essays, poems and other writing on the themes 'Naming the Colonial Context', 'Unsettling Theology', 'Voices of Challenge and Protest', 'Where to from here?' Each piece has a response (from a person identifying as indigenous, if the piece is from a non-indigenous author, and vice versa). The book does not attempt to advance a single idea or answer, and contains voices in tension.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Translated by Richard Philcox, Grove Press reprint edition 2005.A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon’s masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said’s Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers. The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of postindependence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other. Fanon’s analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark.

King, Thomas. The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, 2012. PrintThomas King writes in a way that is clear, compassionate, humorous and challenging, bringing to life the stories of European contact with the many Indigenous nations that were already here, and requiring us to question the version of history that many of us have been fed. He tells the histories of treaties made and broken, brings to the fore the inaccuracies and deceptions of the version of settlement, wars and histories that shaped the U.S. and Canada, so that we have a chance to unlearn racism toward Indigenous peoples of this land. He also examines more recent U.S. government policies and their impact on Indigenous nations. Most importantly, King describes the acts of resistance and gives voice to how the diverse Indigenous nations would shape their relationship with government, society and others who live on this land. This is a perspective we rarely hear and that we need to pay heed to.

Pui-Lan, Kwok. Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology. Westminster John Knox Press, 2005Kwok Pui-lan argues for the necessity of a decolonized mind, evidenced as an ability to re-imagine the past, present and future, and able to struggle for a more desirable future. The postcolonial imagination encompasses historical, dialogical and diasporic imaginings. Kwok’s understanding of historical imagination surfaces the particularity of perspectives among women, and the communally defined specificity of desired futures, in ways related to Collin’s understanding of the importance and contribution of particularity. The dialogic imagination engages issues of subjectivity, cultural interaction and resistance, as well as economics, particularly the impact of global capitalism on cultural and intellectual formation. The diasporic consciousness holds onto memories and stories, reads and knows from multiple vantage points, lives as the outsider/within (a position Kwok expressly relates to Collins’ work), and recognizes the varieties of diasporas, histories and memories.

Sandoval, Chela.Methodology of the Oppressed. University of Minnesota Press, 2000. Cultural critic and theorist Chela Sandoval characterizes the consciousness(es) developed by subordinated, marginalized or colonized subjects as oppositional, and asserts that the methods developed for thinking and working under and around oppressions are necessary for the formation of effective resistance, and for imagining postcoloniality. Sandoval describes these processes as technologies for decolonizing the imagination, and particularly focuses on the development of a differential consciousness.

Differential consciousness is a variable and performative agency, enabling ideological positions to be chosen as needed, situationally and tactically, to navigate shifting currents of power. Differential consciousness requires strength (to commit to an identity), flexibility (to transform to another oppositional tactic as the flows of power demand), grace (to recognize the possibilities of alliance with others), and commitment (to metamorphosis as “principled conversion”) in order to live into an egalitarian ethic enacted in the everyday.

Smith, Andrea. "Decolonizing Theology" In this essay, Andrea Smith looks at how "Canaanite ideology," or theology of conquest undergirds colonial practice in the U.S. and globally and how this ideology has been internalized within liberation theology which celebrates the Exodus narrative and the Hebrew people's conquest of indigenous Canaanites as a model for God's deliverance. Smith then explores possible alternative liberation theologies that stand outside colonizer logics.

Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. Random House, 1993.While every continent, and practically every nation has been influenced by Western imperialism, few writers have helped us to look at how the impact of colonialism shapes every aspect of current political, ideological and social practices, from media coverage of wars to what is taught in high schools as literature. Said helps us to see how the system of domination that took place has influenced "the very imaginations of both the dominators and the dominated." He also traces the works of writers who used their pens as swords to champion the battles for independence and decolonization.

Tinker, George E. Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation. Fortress Press, September, 2004.Writing from a Native American perspective, theologian George Tinker probes American Indian culture, its vast religious and cultural legacy, and its ambiguous relationship to the tradition-historic Christianity-that colonized and converted it. After five hundred years of conquest and social destruction, he says, any useful reflection must come to terms with the political state of Indian affairs and the political hopes and visions for recovering the health and well-being of Indian communities. Does Christian theology have a positive role to play? Tinker's work offers an overview of contemporary native American culture and its perilous state. Critical of recent liberal and New Age co-opting of Native spiritual practices, Tinker also offers a critical corrective to liberation theology. He shows how Native insights into the Sacred Other and sacred space helpfully reconfigure traditional ideas of God, Jesus' notion of the reign of God, and our relation to the earth. From this basis he offers novel proposals about cultural survival and identity, sustainability, and the endangered health of Native Americans.

Waziyatawin. What Does Justice Look Like: the Struggle for Justice in Dakota Homeland. Living Justice Press, 2008. PrintDuring the past 150 years, the majority of Minnesotans have not acknowledged the immense and ongoing harms suffered by the Dakota People ever since their homelands were invaded over 200 years ago. Many Dakota people say that the wounds incurred have never healed, and it is clear that the injustices: genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass executions, death marches, broken treaties, and land theft; have not been made right. The Dakota People paid and continue to pay the ultimate price for Minnesota's statehood. This book explores how we can embark on a path of transformation on the way to respectful coexistence with those whose ancestral homeland this is. Doing justice is central to this process. Without justice, many Dakota say, healing and transformation on both sides cannot occur, and good, authentic relations cannot develop between our Peoples.

Written by Wahpetunwan Dakota scholar and activist Waziyatawin of Pezihutazizi Otunwe, What Does Justice Look Like? offers an opportunity now and for future generations to learn the long-untold history and what it has meant for the Dakota People. On that basis, the book offers the further opportunity to explore what we can do between us as Peoples to reverse the patterns of genocide and oppression, and instead to do justice with a depth of good faith, commitment, and action that would be genuinely new for Native and non-Native relations.